Typically, reflector dishes are circular with polar cross-sectional shape that is parabolic and made to be symmetrical about a central axis. Solar concentrators have been formed as arrays of elongated horizontal troughs with a vertical cross-sectional shape that extends uniformly to a designated full horizontal length; the vertical cross sectional shape is typically parabolic and symmetrical about the horizontal axis. Circular dishes have been manufactured from small, curved, typically square or hexagonal tiles.
It is known to fabricate such reflectors from strips, panels or segments for purposes of facilitating the handling and shipping of large reflector assemblies. In addition to the requirement for a suitable reflective surface, design considerations include parametric options such as segment size, inversely-related segment quantity and sophistication of segment curvature which can be zero (flat) or curved in one axis or two axes, in addition to mechanical mounting and environmental wind/weather considerations. NOTE: for purposes of the present descriptions, the terms X-axis and Y-axis refer to a dish that is shaped symmetrically about a Z axis, and the terms horizontal and vertical refer to the X-axis and Y-axis respectively in the case where the Z axis is horizontal, i.e. the dish on earth aimed at the horizon.